Discussion

1.
Not everyone thinks of the hamburger as a kind of sandwich. Many think of hamburgers and sandwiches as two distinct food items. Consider your own thinking about this and a few others about it. You might use the following questions to help you out:

– What does the phrase “hamburger sandwich” make you think of? 
– Why do menus often have separate sections for sandwiches and hamburgers?

Do you think the hamburgers-are-sandwiches people experience hamburgers differently than the hamburgers-are-not-sandwiches people? Is it possible to take both perspectives? Explain your response in terms of the distinction between linguistic relativity and linguistic determinism (i.e. as discussed in the lecture).

Additionally, consider the following question: What does it mean for a language not to have a word for something? You might have some examples of this already. If not, go to the following website (or a similar one of your choice) and examine words from other languages that are not available for (or, at least, not commonly used by) English speakers:

 https://www.rocketlanguages.com/blog/20-of-the-worlds-most-beautiful-untranslatable-words/

Give your favorite example. Be sure and provide the word, the language, and a basic definition. Then, comment on your example in light of the relationship between linguistic relativity and practice. 

2. 
 Consider a semantic domain that you know well. It might help you to think of a specialization that you have. List some terms within that domain and describe how those terms might reflect the culture of those who use the terms. 

For example, if a person were discussing the state of intoxication resulting from the consumption of alcohol (i.e. drunkeness) as a domain, their list of terms might include: 

Trashed, wasted, tanked, plastered, shitfaced, slizzard, blue, tipsy, hammered, loopy, buzzed, faded, gone, schwasted, pickled, drunk, intoxicated, bombed, hammered, inebriated, fucked up, schnockered, blacked out, destroyed, lit, blitzed, wrecked, twisted, far gone, toasted, shloshed. 

The person would then do a bit of analysis. For example, many of these words are metaphors that relate being drunk to a process that causes a physical object to be immovable (e.g. hammered, plastered) or to lose original purity (e.g. pickled, toasted). The person would then explain the analysis in cultural terms, such as the idea that alcohol consumption contextualizes certain types of social behaviors (at least for those who know and use such terms).